Vincent van Gogh: A Life in Letters

Nienke Bakker, Leo Jansen

• Publisher: Thames and Hudson Ltd
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9780500776674
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Artist Monographs

Vincent van Goghs letters have long been prized as some of the most valuable documents in the world of art. Not only do they throw light on Van Goghs own complex and intriguing character, they enlighten the whole creative process as seen through his eyes. Here we can observe Van Goghs thoughts and opinions at first hand, as well as his close ties with his brother Theo, his sometimes troubled relationships with friends and fellow artists, his personal doubts and fears, and above all his overriding passion for his art. This is not only an immense treasure trove of biographical and art-historical information, it provides a lasting pleasure as a personal written testimony to a life consecrated to art. Vincent van Gogh: A Life in Letters belongs on the shelves of every reader in search of self-revelatory documents of one of the greatest creative minds.

Postscript

Theo was at Vincent’s deathbed, a broken man. He arranged for his brother’s body to be put in a coffin, surrounded by his paintings. On some of them the paint was still wet. Yellow flowers – dahlias and sunflowers – adorned Vincent’s coffin.

A dozen friends and acquaintances from Paris attended the funeral on the following day, Wednesday 30 July, at the small cemetery in the field outside Auvers. The funeral cortège made its way from the Ravoux’s café to the churchyard, led by a grief-stricken Theo. He was followed by friends of the brothers from Paris, the Ravoux family, and neighbours and other villagers who had known the painter in Auvers.

In the months following Vincent’s death, both Theo and his mother received numerous letters from artists, expressing their shock and deepest sympathy.

Theo wrote to his mother two days after the funeral: ‘If he could have seen how people behaved toward me when he had left us and the sympathy of so many for himself, he would at this moment not have wanted to die.’

After Vincent’s death, Theo had a mission: to cultivate understanding and appreciation for his brother’s work. Six weeks after Vincent’s death, Theo organized a memorial exhibition of his brother’s work at his own apartment in Paris. Theo’s many exertions and setbacks meant his own health was now steadily deteriorating too. Shortly after the exhibition, he resigned from Boussod with immediate effect, and promptly suffered a severe nervous breakdown. In October 1890 Theo became mentally deranged, probably as a result of advanced untreated syphilis. He was hospitalized and later transferred to a clinic in Utrecht, where he died in January 1891, six months after Vincent.

Card announcing Vincent van Gogh’s death

Paul van Ryssel (Paul-Ferdinand Gachet), Vincent van Gogh on his deathbed, 1890

Following Theo’s death, his widow Jo moved to the Dutch town of Bussum with her son Vincent Willem, taking Vincent and Theo’s art collection with her. Jo sought to raise public awareness of Vincent’s paintings in various ways, including exhibition loans to museums all over the world and sales to art dealers and collectors. More and more buyers emerged for Van Gogh’s work. In 1914, Jo published Vincent’s letters to Theo. That same year she had her husband’s remains reinterred in Auvers, in a grave next to his brother’s.

Invitation for the funeral of Vincent van Gogh

The graves of Vincent and Theo van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise

Notes on the text

Before 1886 Van Gogh wrote almost all his letters in Dutch, and thereafter almost all in French. Six letters in English survive, of which one (569) is included in this selection. The original language of each letter in this selection is as follows (by letter number):

Dutch: 160, 172, 186, 193, 203, 211, 224, 237, 252, 260, 274, 288, 351, 358, 363, 371, 381, 384, 386, 394, 402, 410, 413, 439, 442, 456, 484, 490, 492, 497, 514, 531, 534, 545, 552, 559, 574, 626, 811

English: 569

French: 155, 487, 587, 592, 602, 611, 620, 622, 628, 632, 638, 651, 677, 691, 695, 706, 726, 728, 730, 739, 743, 756, 764, 776, 782, 790, 798, 801, 822, 850, 853, 863, 877, 879, 896, 898, 902

Letter 155

My dear Theo This is the first letter that Van Gogh wrote in French.

I learned at Etten In March 1880, Van Gogh had been to stay with his parents in Etten.

I accepted them This is the first time in the correspondence that mention is made of Theo’s financial contribution to Vincent’s upkeep; it was only later that Theo began to provide Vincent with regular financial assistance.

hard times Original: ‘Les temps difficiles’ may be an allusion to the French edition of Charles Dickens’s Hard Times. Van Gogh had advised his brother in an earlier letter to read this ‘masterly’ French translation (letter 153).

fashionable Original word written in English.

in different surroundings Van Gogh is referring to the years 1869–76, when he worked for the art dealership Goupil & Cie.

one’s country or native land is everywhere From the passage by Souvestre quoted later in this letter (Emile Souvestre, Un philosophe sous les toits. Journal d’un homme heureux, Paris 1867).

Michelet’s La révolution Française Jules Michelet, L’histoire de la Révolution française. 7 vols, Paris 1847–53.

Aeschylus Van Gogh derived his knowledge of Greek playwright Aeschylus from Victor Hugo’s William Shakespeare (1864), a book that had a profound influence on him.

is sometimes shocking Original word written in both French and English (‘choquant, shocking’).

I admit that it’s shocking ‘shocking’ is written in English.

the abomination of desolation Matt. 24:15 and Mark 13:14.

a system of circumlocution An allusion to the Circumlocution Office in Charles Dickens’s Little Dorrit (1857).

the inside of a church Original words written in both French and English. Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, act 3, scene 3.

Dickens’s ‘Richard Cartone’ Van Gogh confuses two names: Richard Carstone appears in Dickens’s Bleak House; Sydney Carton is the protagonist of A Tale of Two Cities (published in French as Paris & Londres en 1793).

How long, O Lord Isa. 6:11.

have salt in ourselves Mark 9:50.

Souvestre’s Le philosophe Emile Souvestre, Un philosophe sous les toits. Journal d’un homme heureux, Paris 1867, p. 190.

the best way of knowing God Cf. 1 John 5:1–2.

the things he sees with his eyes Cf. Matt. 13:16.

Me, I have everything I need This is clearly meant to be sarcastic.

my address is care of C. Decrucq Van Gogh rented a room at rue du Pavillon 3 (not 8) in Cuesmes from the mine-worker Charles Louis Decrucq.

Letter 160

I went to see Mr Roelofs Willem Roelofs was a Dutch artist who occupied an influential position in the artistic life of the city.

the examples of Bargue Charles Bargue created a series of drawing examples published by Goupil & Cie: Cours de dessin. Avec le concours de J.-L. Gérôme. Paris 1868–70, and Exercices au fusain pour préparer à l’étude de l’académie d’après nature. Paris 1871.

A manual written by Zahn A. de Zahn [Albert von Zahn], Esquisses anatomiques à l’usage des artistes pour servir aux études d’après nature et d’après l’antique (1865).

To be admitted to the drawing academy From 15 December 1880, Van Gogh was enrolled as a student at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Bruxelles for the course ‘Drawing from antiquity: torso and fragments’.

Uncle Cent or Uncle Cor Vincent van Gogh (Uncle Vincent or Uncle Cent) and Cornelis (Cor) Marinus van Gogh (Uncle Cor or C.M.), brothers of Van Gogh’s father, Theodorus van Gogh....

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• About the Authors
• Other Titles of Interest
• Contents
• Note to the Reader
• Introduction: ‘A Man of Passions’: Cuesmes, June 1880
• Beginning as an Artist: Brussels, Etten, The Hague, November 1880–September 1883
• Peasant Painter: Drenthe and Nuenen, September 1883–October 1885
• Becoming a Modern Artist: Antwerp and Paris, November 1885–October 1887
• His Best Days: Arles, February 1888–December 1888
• Seeking New Balance: Arles and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, January 1889–April 1890
• Deceptive Peace and Quiet: Auvers-sur-Oise, May 1890–July 1890
• Postscript
• Copyright